Scratch Pad for Build-fu

[unbongwah]

HA! Get it? "Scratch pad?" Because they have claws? It's - I say - it's wordplay, son, bon mots, that is!

Anyway, just a thread for some build ideas based on druid changes. DISCLAIMER: I hate minmaxing so don't bother telling me these aren't max-DPS builds which can't solo R10 Strahd (so why bother) - yes, I know, I also don't care.

Concept: DEX- and WIS-based melee / caster hybrid
Issue: Evasion is a tier-5 Nature's Warrior enhancement, but DEX to-hit and damage isn't an inherent class or tree ability for druids. MCed builds will have a few different options, but if you want a pure druid, you only have two options for DEX to-hit & dmg:

• Use a named weapon which natively supports it. [For non-druid 2H weapons, you also need the proficiency if you want to avoid the to-hit penalty. For 1H weapons, you can invest in UMD and use Master's Touch scrolls.]
• Elf with Weapon Finesse + Aerenal Grace can get DEX to-hit & damage with rapiers in wolf form. [confirmed on Lama] The other racial melee weapons can get DEX to damage but not to-hit on pure druid. [looks like they already bugfixed the weirdness of using ranged / thrown weapons in animal form too]

This build is an example of the latter.

Race: elf
Class: druid 20
Stats (36 pt): WIS 18 (+lvl-ups) / DEX 18 / CON 14
Feats: Quicken (1), Precision (3), Weapon Finesse (6), ??? (9), IC:Pierce (12), ??? (15), Spell Focus:Evocation? (18), Overwhelming Crit (21), BoGW? (24), PTWF (26), ??? (27), ??? (28), Dire Charge? (29), Scion of Plane of Air? (30)

• Lotta blank feat slots because it depends on what you want to emphasize: Natural Fighting feats for more melee DPS; metamagics for higher caster DPS; maybe even the two Augment Summons feats for better dogs. For maximum elf flavor sauce, add Shadow Dragonmark.

Enhancements: 41 Nature's Warrior (tier-5s + capstone) / 19 elf (Aerenal Grace + Skill) / 6 Nature's Protector (+20 PRR/MRR) / 11 Season's Herald (three cores for caster bonuses) with 3 APs left to tweak (Call Lightning SLA maybe)

Mainhand: rapiers eventually, though for early heroic leveling I recommend Sky Pirate's Dagger of Tiefling Assassin's Blade. [EDIT: you can also use Flame Blade, as WIS to dmg is now applying in animal forms.] At level 12 your crit threat range with rapiers becomes 15-20/x3 from IC:Pierce + Nature's Hunter. [In epics, drow rapier and Mutineer's Blade are 13-20/x3, Balizarde is 15-20/x4.]
Offhand: either orb for caster bonuses or shield for passive / defensive bonuses. Once you have Nature's Swiftness (Evasion), you can only use bucklers or small shields.

Gameplay: like I said, it's a melee / caster hybrid. Every time the temp SPs from Essence of Nature procs, you use a spell or wolf ability with them. Winter spec (cold / lightning).

[unbongwah]

Concept: melee-focused bear which can Rage and cast Heal; loosely inspired by the Forest Master prestige class which uses mauls.
Issue: Rage of the Beast and barb Rage block druid spellcasting.
Solution: Destruction domain allows you to cast cleric spells (but JUST cleric spells) while Raged. Also bonuses to melee weapons carry over to animal forms; this should include Blessing of Silvanus.

Race: PDK

• Silvanus is only available to four Forgotten Realms races: PDK, SDK, Deep Gnome, and Scourge Aasimar. [Morninglords (sun elves) are restricted to Amauntor only.] PDK get bonus feat making them the obvious choice.

Class: druid 3 / barb 6 / cleric 11 (Silvanus / Destruction) - LR +1 required

• Druid 3 grants base bear form and access to the new Natural Fighting feats as well as tier-3 enhancements. Barb 6 for Rage plus enhancements (see below); also I think +10% run speed should carry over. Cleric 11 for Heal spell; Destruction domain so you can cast cleric spells while Raged; Silvanus for +2 crit range w/mauls.
• Leveling is tricky due to initial fighter level: start out as ftr 1 / druid 3 / cleric 11; then LR +1 to get rid of ftr and replace with barb. Last 5 levels are barb.

Feats: Power Atk / Cleave / GC chain; IC:Blunt + Overwhelming Crit; Quicken (must-have on any caster esp. melee builds IMO); Stunning Blow; Epic DR.

• That's six heroic and two epic feats, leaving room for all three Natural Fighting feats. Although you could trade one for Empower Heal.

Enhancements: 36 Ravager (Crit Rage + Blood Strength) / 14 Berserker (Supreme Cleave + Frenzy) / 13 Nature's Protector (+10 MP, +20 PRR/MRR, +25% HPs) / 12 Nature's Warrior (Prey on the Weak) / 4 Warpriest (Div Might) / 1 PDK (Dmg Boost)

• AFAICT, barb Rage and Rage of the Beast enhancements are "cross-compatible," so to speak, as long as you're in animal form.
• Final crit threat range with mauls should be 14-20/x3 with IC:Blunt, Crit Rage, Blessing of Silvanus, and Pulverizer (assuming it works in animal form).

Again: need a whole bunch of testing to confirm that everything fits together as intended.

EDIT: did some testing on Lama last night and everything appears to fit together as intended:

1. Blessing of Silvanus and Crit Rage stacking and applying to bear form with maul equipped? Check. [Forgot to test LD w/Pulverizer, though.]
2. Nature's Protector bonuses working in bear form with barb Rage? Check.
3. Able to cast cleric spells while Raged in bear form? Check.

The obvious question: how does it compare to other melee builds? The answer is I'M A GIANT ANGRY BEAR WITH A GIANT FREAKIN' HAMMER SO SHUT UP

EDIT: I've also considered druid 3 / cleric 6 (Strength domain) / barb 11 reversing the barb / cleric split. Basically you trade being able to cast cleric spells while Raged (bye-bye Heal) for Strength domain's bonus to Reflex saves and Greater Rage (+2 STR/CON and extra +10 MP).

[edrein]

After having ran an fallen Aasimar barbarian for the past few weeks in Reaper, I'd say look there for a bearbarian build. Although pure 20 bear was ok. Once/if they fix the melee power scaling I think they'll be viable as a tank-DPS hybrid similar to Vanguard.

[Caprice]

Note that the DEX to attack and damage bonuses for quarterstaves available in Thief Acrobat do work when using a staff in Wolf form (I haven't tested in Bear/WW/DB yet). However the attack speed passive from Thief Acrobatics does not apply. As expected from the developer notes Quick Strike is not available in animal form. So staff does not appear to be a viable choice for animal form, since none of the buffs that make it viable for melee affect animal form.

Also the Improved Shillelagh from the Nature's Herald cores does not seem to work on wooden staves at all (I have not tested non-staves yet). Hopefully that's a bug.

All the above is based on my testing on Lama today (14-Mar-2018).

[Hjarki]

Concept: Melee-Focused Rage Wolf aiming for solid balance of self-preservation and damage.

Race: Aasimar Scourge. You get Lay on Hands (and Strength) in the cores, +5% Doublestrike for 2 additional AP.

Classes: 13/6/1 Druid/Cleric/Barbarian. A single level in Barbarian gives +10% movement speed and access to Extend Rage, Power Rage, Improved Power Attack, etc. 6 levels of Cleric grants Strength Domain (Strength to Reflex), +2 threat range on Mauls, Divine Might (probably not useful until endgame where you can blunder your way into 40+ Charisma without much effort since Charisma is otherwise not a key feature of the build). Nature's Warrior to T5 (Evasion, Jaws of the Great White Wolf), Nature's Protector to T3 (+25% hit points, Rage), Season's Herald to T4 (Spring Resurgence). In theory, you could also take Radiant Servant to get Divine Healing but this strikes me as likely too many trees/enhancements to be workable.

Feats: Power Attack, Quicken, Extend. Natural Fighting seems uninspiring, but there's plenty of room for it. Cleave/Great Cleave might well be superfluous but, again, plenty of room. In Epic levels, Epic Reflexes would let you effectively ignore one entire category of saves given your Rage-fueled Strength. I'm not sure exactly how Heighten or spell DC improvements in general affect the Wolf form spells.

With such a build, you could completely ignore Dexterity (although this would make your AC rather unimpressive) and rely on a combination of easy self-healing/control effects to back up your offense.

General thoughts:
1. I'm not sure what's up with Heavy Armor proficiency. This would be really nice - if all the decent heavy armors didn't break Druidic Oath.

2. Druidic Rage seems good, but it almost demands a single level of Barbarian (for Extend/Extra Rage if nothing else). Note that the loss of spellcasting isn't that big a deal, since you can cast Extended buffs beforehand and Druids have a host of options for healing while Raged (temporary hit point buffs, Spring Resurgence, etc.).

3. Non-Strength melee doesn't seem to make much sense. In theory, Wisdom-based melee might make some sense - except the only way to pull that off is 10+ levels of Favored Soul (at which point you've also thrown away most of the rationale for going Wisdom-based) or Flame Blade (at which point you're committing yourself to weak melee). Since all of the special attacks are Wisdom/Strength, picking something like Dexterity makes little sense. Even if you theorize about a Wisdom-based Flame Blade build, you're just gimping your ability to use those special attacks since Strength is far easier to buff than Wisdom.

4. Natural Fighting seems really poor. I find glancing blows generally uninspiring, and Natural Fighting doesn't deliver all that much on that front. The whole line seems a lot weaker than conventional feat lines.

5. T5 Wolf strikes me as a lot better than T5 Bear. T5 Wolf gives the ability to pile on temporary hit points, evasion and a nice boost to melee power. T5 Bear just gives the melee power.

6. Snowslide seems nice, but getting to level 9 spells is really difficult without making significant compromises.

[unbongwah]

Race: Aasimar Scourge. You get Lay on Hands (and Strength) in the cores, +5% Doublestrike for 2 additional AP.

Random aside: I had considered a Scourge wolf druid using Cranium Cracker. That should be 18-20/x5 with Destroyer of the Dead, IC Blunt, and Nature's Hunter; and it gets +1[W] from Shillelagh+Nature's Wellspring, if/when that works right. The AP cost is kinda prohibitive though: 17 Scourge + 21 NW + 11 SH = 49 APs and you don't even have tier-4/5 NW yet, which effectively gobbles up most if not all the rest of your APs.

Nature's Protector to T3 (+25% hit points, Rage)

The Ursa Protector bonuses (inc. +25% HPs) only work in bear form.

1. I'm not sure what's up with Heavy Armor proficiency. This would be really nice - if all the decent heavy armors didn't break Druidic Oath.

Anything dragonscale is druid-compatible. Is Scales of Avarice still "decent?"

4. Natural Fighting seems really poor. I find glancing blows generally uninspiring, and Natural Fighting doesn't deliver all that much on that front. The whole line seems a lot weaker than conventional feat lines.

Agreed. The silver lining to devs making NF even worse than it already is: I now consider them entirely optional. Maybe not the intended effect, though...

[Tilomere]

del

Notes:
Cleave's don't generally double strike, and cleaves are how melee generally clear out the game, so we will dump NF feats. Also there is no epic Master of Shapeshifted spells, so we know in advance they won't scale into epics, so we don't take metamagics to develop them in the first place. Our one free feat swap we could have used to do so is already used up by Enchant > Evo.
Snowslide has a hidden move speed boost of 50% for use with stealth. Just don't hit anyone with it. Dragon plate armor has very low armor check penalties for stealth.

[unbongwah]

Cleave's don't generally double strike, and cleaves are how melee generally clear out the game, so we will dump NF feats.

Note that Natural Fighting no longer grants doublestrike; instead it grants Melee Power and (in bear form) glancing blow bonuses.

You're uhh not wrong about dumping those feats though.

[Tilomere]

Note that Natural Fighting no longer grants doublestrike; instead it grants Melee Power and (in bear form) glancing blow bonuses.

You're uhh not wrong about dumping those feats though.

What's amusing is that it doesn't matter if it gave both.

When melee cleave to clear the game, double strike isn't that meaningful, especially if it comes at the cost of cleave feats, and when melee have 200 melee power, 2 melee power isn't meaningful.

That's why I wanted spell power on crit and quicken built into the feats, and a Master of Forms feat.

I like my proposal better, but give me anything with a usable AoE stun DC, and I'll make it work.

I really like my build above. The dragon plate armors druids wear have low armor check penalties, which will allow stealthing through the game. Bard gives stealth skills at full ranks. Druid gives move speed for stealth.

Bard also is giving a Suggestion SLA that will ignore the ASF of that dragonplate and as an SLA ignores animal form spell cooldown increases, martial weapon + tower shield proficiency via master's touch, and a mega crit double cleave attack, that will combo with riftmaker/sos and the crit multiplier in NW, as well as more strength for druid tactics. Plus UMD, who doesn't love UMD.

Cleric gives plate proficiency for that dragonplate, divine might for even more strength for druid tactics and combat, and we are going to use the turn undead charges which are based on charisma for triple cleave attacks in epics, and night shield spell vs. magic missiles.

That's such a nice way everything comes together!

Any rage that blocks spell casting is a trap. Don't go there. Try explore 6 cleric- sylvanus + strength domain to fuel T5 NW evasion. I think you will have better luck.

[Hjarki]

Random aside: I had considered a Scourge wolf druid using Cranium Cracker. That should be 18-20/x5 with Destroyer of the Dead, IC Blunt, and Nature's Hunter; and it gets +1[W] from Shillelagh+Nature's Wellspring, if/when that works right. The AP cost is kinda prohibitive though: 17 Scourge + 21 NW + 11 SH = 49 APs and you don't even have tier-4/5 NW yet, which effectively gobbles up most if not all the rest of your APs.

I've been trying to come up with a decent justification for one-handed weapons and I just can't do it - the loss of 0.5xstat is just too huge when you can't compensate with combat feat lines. Unless you're trying for a purely defensive build, you're going to lose a lot of damage. I'm also very wary of tying a build to a specific, probably-won't-be-replicated weapon.

The Ursa Protector bonuses (inc. +25% HPs) only work in bear form.

Ah - missed that part. Oh well. You know what they say: "hit points are for people who don't know how to accept the Res". The downgrade in damage from Wolf -> Bear is fairly steep.

Anything dragonscale is druid-compatible. Is Scales of Avarice still "decent?"

This is another "tie your build to one specific piece of equipment" problem. In the absence of Druidic Oath, it's unlikely you'd choose Scales of Avarice. It's not quite as massive a downgrade as the Club over Ravenloft gear, but it's still a downgrade. You're also relying on them making non-metal heavy armor going forward - which isn't necessarily a good bet. I'll admit there's more to the world that Heavy Armor vs. Evasion, but Druidic Oath really tilts me in the direction of Evasion.

21 Natures Warrior +1 Crit Multiplier

Currently, A True Hunter (NW/Core 4) gives +1 to hit, not +1 critical multiplier.

[Tilomere]

Currently, A True Hunter (NW/Core 4) gives +1 to hit, not +1 critical multiplier.

So a bug? Or is it an unlisted change post release notes?

Nature's Warrior:
Cores:
Nature's Warrior: each Core grants 8 Hit Points, +1 Sneak Attack dice in Wolf form and +1 damage in Wolf and Bear form.
Natural Senses: Your attacks penetrate 10% of your enemies Fortification, +3 to Listen, Spot and Search.
Nature's Bounty: While in Animal form, the cooldown penalty for non-animal form spells is reduced from 2.5 times the usual length to 2.0. Does not stack with Nature's Protector Cores. Wolf Form movement speeds are increased by an additional 1% for every two Druid levels.
Nature's Hunter: In Wolf or bear form you gain a +1 Competency bonus to your Critical Damage Multiplier on your weapon. Requires a weapon to be equipped.
Howling Frost: Casting Howl of Terror now grants you "Winter Hunt" for 10 seconds which grants +10 Melee Power and 25% bonus to Spell Critical damage (50% to Spell Critical Damage for Cold damage spells.) This only occurs once every 30 seconds.
Avatar of the Hunter: You hae mastered the art of wielding Divine magic in animal form, and using it to empower your body in physical combat. While in animal form, the cooldown penalty for non-animal form spells is reduced from 2.5 times the usual length to 1.5. Does not stack with Nature's Protector cores. Passive: +2 Strength and Wisdom and +10 to Doublestrike and Physical Resistance Rating.

[unbongwah]

I've been trying to come up with a decent justification for one-handed weapons and I just can't do it - the loss of 0.5xstat is just too huge when you can't compensate with combat feat lines. Unless you're trying for a purely defensive build, you're going to lose a lot of damage.

If you're playing pure druid, you don't have any useful 2H proficiencies besides staves. So that's an issue if you're not MCing. I'm waiting to see how the shield feats shake out; apparently the doublestrike bonuses are still applying from Shield Mastery but that's...probably not WAI?

You're also relying on them making non-metal heavy armor going forward - which isn't necessarily a good bet. I'll admit there's more to the world that Heavy Armor vs. Evasion, but Druidic Oath really tilts me in the direction of Evasion.

Then stick to non-metal medium armor: lose a little PRR, gain higher MDB / Dodge bonus. Free heavy armor prof is a perk, not a build requirement, after all.

Basically my build efforts are split between pure druids which are built the way I think SSG intends them to be played; and MCed builds designed to exploit synergies for the way DDO is actually played. Then I'll figure out which I actually want to play.

[Silverleafeon]

New final build
Pure Wisdom Caster Druid with focus on SLAs & DCs


Aasimar Scourge ~ requires +1 heart to get rid of ranger 1
or Aasimar as desired

Str 08 (0)
Dex 08 (0)
Con 16 (10)
Int 16 (10)
Wis 20 (16)
Cha 08 (0) {Given the reduced casting time of reincarnation, cha focus is less necessary}



Skills in order of importance:

Concentration max
Spellcraft max
Heal max
Tumble 1 rank
Balance 10 ranks
Jump 10 ranks
UMD max
Perform max if planning Shirdai ED
Search max if planning on finding hidden doors via scrolled Find Traps spell




Feats

1) Maximize
3) Completionist
6) Empower
9) Enlarge
12) Quicken
15) Spell Focus (Evocation)
18) Heighten
21) ? Past Life: Arcane Initiate / Extend (if in Fire Form) / Augment Summoning (more desirable given removal of Pet Death Penalty) / Wellspring of Power (if sloting Otto's Irrevocable Power)
24) Master of the Wild {Given the decrease in SLA cooldowns this becomes more desirable}
26ED) ? Epic Skill Focus (Spellcraft) / Epic Spellpower (Fire/Cold/Electric) {unsure if overall +5 universal <=> +20 one element?}
27) Intensify {Given the decrease in SLA cooldowns this becomes more desirable} / Ruin {if seeking Greater Ruin at level 30}
28ED) Mass Frog {try it, you might grow to like it}
29ED) ? Arcane Pulse {likely best overall} / Spirit Blades {if in Shirdai ED} / Dire Charge {unlikely due to poor attack bonuses}
30) ? Burst of Glacial Wrath / Ruin / Improved Augment Summoning / Arcane Insight (if sloting Otto's Irrevocable Power) / Embolden Spell / Greater Spell Focus (Evocation)
30LG) Air



Epic Destinies:

Primal (for raids?)
Shirdai (for R1~6 quests) {Druid falls apart in Reaper 8+, like most other builds}

Twists:
1) Tier Four: Draconic Energy Burst (fire/cold) given the new immunity breaker, and the lack of AoE spells
2) Tier Three: Magistar [Evocation Spell School] Augmentation
3) Tier Two: Magistar [Evocation Spell School] Specialist
4) Tier Two: Draconic Precise Casting: Evocation
5) Empty due to upgrading slot four



Spells ~ see the list of useful spells on DDO wiki:
http://ddowiki.com/page/Spell_usefulness#Druid



Enhancements

Racial

Aasimar/Scourage (pretty much the same tree for a caster)

Take all Cores = 5 points spent ~ you want all of these regardless

Tier One Aasimar Improved Recovery = 2 points spent

Tier Two Arcanum = 6 points spent ~ somewhere along here become optional

Tier Three Aasimar Improved Recovery = 2 points spent

Tier Four Aasimar Improved Recovery = 2 points spent (definately optional)

{Why the push for Healing Amp? Because Druid Casters rarely get more than an occasional Cocoon from other party members.}



NATURE'S PROTECTOR {Optional goal to get +2 Wis at a cost of 24ish action points} {Also Hybrids might consider this path}

Cores 1 thru 5 = 5 points spent

Tier One:
Improved Nature's Defense: Competence bonus PRR MRR 4/8/12 = 3 points spent (total = 8)

Tier Two:
Improved Nature's Defense: Competence bonus Saving Throws = 3 points spent (total = 11)
Thick Hide: Nature Armor Bonus 2/4 = 2 points spent (total = 13)

Tier Three:
+1 Wisdom = 2 points spent (total = 15)
Spirit Refreshed = 2 points spent (total = 17)
Ursa Protector: While in bear form nature's defense now does +15/20/25 % to max hp = 3 points spent (total = 20)

Tier Four:
+1 Wisdom = 2 points spent (total = 22)
Spirit Refreshed = 2 points spent (total = 24)



SEASONS HERALD most important tree for casters

Cores: Take all six = 6 points spent (total = 6)

Tier One:
Wax and Wane = 2 points spent (total = 8)
Produce Flame = 3 points spent (total = 11)
Druidic Wisdom = 3 points spent (total = 14) ~ double universal spellpower optional
Shared Spirit = 3 points spent (total = 17) ~ double universal spellpower optional

Tier Two:
Wax and Wane = 2 points spent (total = 19)
Creeping Cold = 3 points spent (total = 22)

Tier Three:
Autumn Leaves = 1 point spent (total = 23)
Wax and Wane = 2 points spent (total = 25)
Call Lighting = 3 points spent (total = 28)
Wisdom = 2 points spent (total =30)

Tier Four
Spring Resurgence = 3 points spent (total = 33)
Strength of the Solstice = 2 points spent (total = 35)
Wax and Wane = 2 points spent (total = 37)
Salt Ray = 3 points spent (total = 40)
Wisdom = 2 points spent (total = 42)

Tier Five
Crown of Summer = 1 point spent (total = 43)
Master of the Elements = 3 points spent (total = 46)
Time and Time again = 2 points spent (total = 48)
Word of Balance = 3 points spent (total = 51)
Armor of Winter = 2 points spent (total = 53)

One could remove the six optional points from tier one to drop down to 47 points for a hybrid build.

One could add Tier two Action Boost for an additional three points, increasing to 56 points spent in the tree.

Also of interest are the Metamagic Cost Reducers which could increase the tree cost by 18 points for a total of 74 points.




Epic Destiny: Shirdai
Points
Tier One Wild Shots 3 / Wisdom 2
Tier Two Prism 2 / Wisdom 2
Tier Three Rainbow 2 / Wisdom 2
Tier Four Double Rainbow 2 / Wisdom 2
Tier Five Nerve Venom 3 / Wisdom 2
Tier Six Rain of Arrows 2


Twists
Tier Four: Red Dragon Spell Knowledge from Draconic
Tier Three: Magistar Evocation Augmentation
Tier Two: Magistar Evocation Specialist
Tier One: Avenging Light

At Legendary gain an additional Tier One: various?




Active Toggles:
Sun Elf
Energy Criticals (which I turn off and on every time I log in)
Power Over Life and Death (Block Energy if in the new raid)
Skill Mastery
Color of the Queen (reaper) or Fast Healing (non reaper)
Rainbow (have to turn this one on when I log in)
Fire/Water/Winter Wolf form stance (have to turn in when ever you die)

Important Spells Memorized:
{Add various healing spells as you level up then replace with better ones}
{Prefer not to Meta these spells unless you know you have shrine soon}
{Have tried Meta on some spells and seems to work fairly well, spell point management is important task for Druids.}
{All SLAs should be fully Meta at all times because its free to do so.}
{Always Quicken Heals, Earthquakes, Sleet Storm, Call Lighting Storm}

Level One:
Produce Flame ~ non meta cooldown 1 second
Jump
Other: {Farie Fire/Entangle/Pass without Trace/Merfolk's Blessing}

Level Two:
Resist Energy
Pact Pressence
Creeping Cold
Splinterbolt
Gust of Wind (can use scrolls for this even Cyclonic Blast Scrolls)

Level Three
Sleet Storm (be sure and FoM party)
Call Lighting (when you get this heroics becomes so much easier)
Salt Ray
Quench
Spider Skin
Spike Growth

Level Four
Freedom of Movement (FoM)
Flame Strike
Ice Storm
Other: Enveloping Swarm (might cause a Shirdai procure so fairly cheap if cast without meta)

Level Five
Call Lighting Storm
Wall of Fire
Death Ward
Pack Aptitude
Reincarnate (carry Rez scrolls too)

Level Six
Fire Seeds
Fire Shield
Greater Creeping Cold
Word of Balance
Tenacious Pack

Level Seven
Greater Vigor Mass (Stacks with Mass Regeneration so cast both when needed)
Body of the Sun (why you are taking Extend which you can drop if you only want to focus on cold)
Firestorm
Freezing Spray
Sunbeam
Other: Creeping Doom might be good, not tested enough while watching effects, hard to find room to slot in.

Level Eight
Heal
Earthquake
Fires of Purity (but most melee will not even stay still long enough to cast DW & FoM on them)
Sunburst
Finger of Death
Ice Flowers (I like to leave options open to go ice or fire form when desired)

Level Nine
All of them

[unbongwah]

Aasimar Scourge ~ requires +1 heart to get rid of ranger 1

You didn't list enhancements. Is there any particular reason to use Scourge rather than regular Aasimar?

[Silverleafeon]

You didn't list enhancements.

Will work on adding a list thanks...

Still looks like mostly everything into Season's Herald for the +1 universal Spell Power, unless one want to pursue the +1 wis & +1 wis from the Bear tree.

Is there any particular reason to use Scourge rather than regular Aasimar?

+1 con from stance, along with starting at level 15 to work up to endgame

Other than that Aasimar > Scourge especially for anyone not wanting to pay to win or only staying a few months at level cap.

[SerPounce]

I like coming up with the pure build I like the most, then seeing if I can beat it with multiclassing.


Mr Fundamentals
Half elf Druid 20 (wolf focus)

This build gets capstone advantages, can use any martial 2 hander, gets tactical bonuses from KtA and Half elf fighter enhancement, and evasion fueled by INT to reflex.

STR 18 (lvl ups in STR)
CON 16
INT 16

Feats: [edited for better AoE, dropping Natural fighting]
1. Power Attack
1. Half elf: fighter
3. Cleave
6. Great Cleave
9. Insightful reflexes
12. Improved Crit (Probably slashing)
15. Quicken
18. Natural fighting 1/ Completionist/ stunning blow

Enhancements
Half Elf: 17
+2 Str, +1 INT (or CON), +6% to hit, +2 tactics, +3 hit/dmg, +20% amp

Wolf: 41

Bear: 11
3 cores for HP/MRR/Heavy armor option, Stance for PRR/MRR/Saves

Harper: 8
Know the angles

And a few points to play with

I've seen a lot of posts saying multiclass is required, but this seems hard to beat for me. You get full caster levels for mass regenerate and the best cooldowns an animal can get. You can use a nightmother falchion or a named 2 hander for good DPS. You get high tactics from max druid lvls (not listed in the lamania OP, but in the other one all the animal attacks got 1/2 druid lvl), and some bonus from half elf.

Disadvantages/concerns:
I don't know how well evasion will work even with a secondary stat fueling it. Might be better putting on heavy armor and using insightful reflexes on something else (e.g. another natural fighting).

AoE DPS could be better. Hard to tell how those T5 Wolf enhancements will really work out in practice. Easy switch though. Trade precision for PA, and 2 NF feats for cleaves. Keep the last NF. They scale completely linearly so there's no reason it's all or none with NF as currently planned and +4 Melee power, +4 PRR, +1 DCs is a decent feat even if disappointing for a fighting style feat. [edit: switched the basic build to prefer cleaves. Natural fighting is pretty optional in it's current state, I'd rather have cleaves]

[edrein]

If you're playing pure druid, you don't have any useful 2H proficiencies besides staves. So that's an issue if you're not MCing. I'm waiting to see how the shield feats shake out; apparently the doublestrike bonuses are still applying from Shield Mastery but that's...probably not WAI?

Then stick to non-metal medium armor: lose a little PRR, gain higher MDB / Dodge bonus. Free heavy armor prof is a perk, not a build requirement, after all.

Basically my build efforts are split between pure druids which are built the way I think SSG intends them to be played; and MCed builds designed to exploit synergies for the way DDO is actually played. Then I'll figure out which I actually want to play.

It's clear to me that they actually intend for you to multiclass. However, it should be noted that the multiclass is meant for Barbarian, Bard, and Ranger. AKA: Any class with Wilderness lore. Now if they really want to up the ante on the whole Multiclass is the only way to play DDO anymore logic they seem to push with each pass, I'd suggest going and giving wilderness lore to certain cleric domains at a staggered rate like Bards (save for Animal Domain, they clearly deserve full Wilderness Lore progression.)

[Silverleafeon]

It's clear to me that they actually intend for you to multiclass.

That last minute alteration of wolf attack speed gives one pondering:

Winter Wolf Speed increased to 10% + 1% per druid level, max 30% at level 20 druid.

However, I would expect a typical melee build to consider multi-classing as Caster Levels are far less important to that type of build.

[Tilomere]

AoE DPS could be better. Hard to tell how those T5 Wolf enhancements will really work out in practice.

A single hit 12 second cleave...

I know exactly how well that will work out, which is why I added cleave, great cleave, En Pointe, and Confront Any Foe.

[unbongwah]

Nature's Warrior capstone is...okay (+10% doublestrike), but it's clear to me that devs intend pure wolf builds to be melee / caster hybrids. Otherwise why put so much emphasis on cold-spell boosts (Winter Hunt, Great White Wolf) and put the spell cooldown reductions in the cores? Which is how I wanted to play my wolf druid all along (I hated feeling like I needed to use the bug exploits to stay competitive), so I'm actually happy about that...at least in theory. We'll see how it works in practice. But if your focus is just on melee DPS, you're either gonna multiclass or use Vistani tree (or both).

So I would expect the two most common break points for wolf builds to be either druid 8 (winter wolf form) and 12 (+1 crit multiplier - when it's fixed, ofc).

• Druid 8 opens up a lot of 8 / 12 or 8/6/6 combos: e.g., druid 8 / barb 12, druid 8 / ftr 12, druid 8 / barb 6 / ftr 6, depending on priorities. Druid 8 / cleric or FvS 6 (Silvanus) also an option.
  
• Druid 12: I was thinking druid 12 / monk 6 / <splash> 2 for tier-5 Ninja + Nature's Hunter using kamas or short swords. Henshin nerfed just as druid is fixed but oh well. Haven't thought that out yet though.
  

Bear builds, OTOH, it actually feels like Dire Bear is being deprecated.

• In the past, you went to druid 9 for Natural Fighting feats; which meant you picked up Dire Bear or Winter Wolf on the way. But now you only need druid 3 for NF feats. Also the feats are even more terrible now so NBD if you skip.
  
• wolf -> winter wolf is +15% attack speed (15% -> 30%). That certainly justifies the 6 extra druid levels, even if you ignore the higher-tier enhancements & spells.
  
• OTOH, bear -> dire bear only gets you +2 CON and +5% AC. Which don't really matter that much if you're melee-focused. Before you needed dire bear for the DPS upgrade (d8 20/x2 -> d12 20/x3); but the changes to animal-form DPS mean that doesn't matter.
  

So if you're not sticking with pure druid for the higher level spells and Enhancements (or just flavor), it opens the door to druid 3-splashed bears like my build above, particularly if you want to use Rage, you pretty much have to combine with barb Rage enhancements, because Rage of the Beast is pretty weaksauce on its own right now.